The present invention relates to an apparatus for feeding sheet-like products to a processing device for printed products.
An apparatus of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,167 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/173967 and the corresponding EP-A-0606549 and EP-A-0606550. The disclosed device includes a rotationally driven, wheel-like carrying member. Clamps which can be controlled via pivot levers and links are arranged at intervals in the circumferential direction on the carrying member. The pivot levers and links are mounted on the carrying member, such that they can pivot about axes parallel to the axis of rotation. The position of the clamps is thus controlled, in the manner of a four-bar mechanism, depending on the pivot position of the pivot lever. If the pivot lever is pivoted toward the rear (as seen in the direction of rotation) the mouth of the clamp is directed toward the front. It assumes this position upon running through a receiving region in which it seizes a product at the product's trailing edge (as seen in the direction of rotation). The product is fed to the receiving region, by a belt conveyor, tangentially to the movement path of the clamps, but at a speed which is lower than the speed of the clamps. Upon pivoting the pivot lever out of its rearwardly directed end position into an approximately radial position, the clamp, in dependence on the movement of the pivot lever, is pivoted counter to the direction of rotation. This introduces the product into the transfer region between wall elements of a processing device for printed products. There the product is layed on a printed product which is butting against the wall elements. In order to ensure that the products are seized by the clamps in the receiving region, the products are always fed in the same direction as the direction of rotation, but at a relatively lower speed. In the arrangements disclosed in these documents, the receiving of products which are stopped, relative to the direction of rotation, in the receiving region is not mentioned. Nor is such receiving possible with the apparatus disclosed therein. Furthermore, only flexible products can be processed in the disclosed device.
Another apparatus for feeding sheet-like products to a processing device for printed products and for bonding the products onto the same is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,685 and the corresponding EP-A-0540865. The apparatus disclosed here includes a belt conveyor which feeds card-like products, spaced apart from one another, to a receiving region. The products are received there by means of flat retaining devices with suction heads or controlled grippers. In the receiving region these suction heads or control grippers move essentially in the same direction and at the same speed as the products to be received. The retaining devices are mounted on pivot levers which are articulated on a wheel-like, rotationally driven carrying member. Links are also articulated on the retaining devices. At the other end, these links, are also pivotably mounted on the carrying member and are coupled to a planetary gear mechanism in order to control the pivot position in dependence on the movement of the carrying member. In the receiving region, the retaining devices or grippers are directed approximately tangentially with respect to their rotational path. During the course of an approximately half-rotation of the carrying member, the retaining devices or grippers are pivoted, by the planetary gear mechanism, through approximately 90.degree. in the same direction as the carrying member. The result is that in the transfer region they are directed approximately perpendicular to their rotational path. At the same time, the retaining devices or clamps are moved toward the front with respect to the carrying member, as seen in the direction of rotation. This brings the products into abutment against, and presses them onto, a printed product which is deposited in a straddling manner on a saddle-like rest of the processing device. In this device, it is absolutely necessary that in the transfer region the products move at essentially the same speed as the retaining devices or grippers. This considerably restricts the possible different ways of presenting the products at the delivery location.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for feeding sheet-like products to a processing device for printed products, which apparatus, even with a high processing capacity, permits the processing of a vast range of types of products along with careful handling.